Important To Story:
The story starts straight after a memory from the Pensieve finishes. Lily and Severus are in a clearing, talking, when they are interupted by Petunia. Severus, having been insulted, makes a branch fall on Petunia's shoulder, she runs away crying. Lily runs after her.
This story is mainly about a girl called Mary and also Sirius. It also deals with Lily, James, Severus, Remus, Peter and all those other lovable characters. The story starts when the characters are between 9 - 10 years old, this is the summer holidays before the year when they will leave for Hogwarts.
P.S. Myrissa is a fairy (and that bit is important to the story)
"No - No I didn't!"
The small red-haired girl ran off after her sister. "Petunia! Come back!"
At the same moment, a different young girl with golden brown hair ran through the forest, constantly looking over her shoulder. She only heard Lily's voice a fraction of a second too late.
"Ouch!"
"Ow!"
Both girls collided and fell in a tumble onto the forest floor. Quickly regarding each other, recognition spread over their faces as the encounter drove all thoughts of Petunia and Severus out of Lily's mind.
"Mary?"
"Lily?"
The girls both leapt up and started to hug each other. The second girl, who had been called Mary, was slightly smaller but no more fragile than Lily. Her eyes were an earthy shade that was undistinguishable as a single colour and could only really be called brown-green. She, like Lily, wore Muggle Jeans and a tee-shirt.
"I haven't seen you in ages!" Lily said.
"Yeah. My parents have sort of been keeping me busy."
"... It's the Summer Holidays."
Mary hesitated. "They give me extra work sometimes."
"Wow. That must suck."
"Yeah. It does sorta."
There was a rustling in the bushes and slowly Severus Snape emerged from behind a large fern with a foul expression across his face. It seemed he had heard the two girls talking.
Lily turned away from him, folding her arms whilst Mary stared at him with a curious expression on her face. Severus turned his gaze momentarily towards Mary before looking back at Lily, desperately.
"Lily I didn't mean to!"
She stayed silent.
"It was an accident. I swear!"
Lily looked absolutely furious. "So you accidentally dropped a branch on my sister's head?!"
It was Snape's turn to be silent.
"It could've hurt her! She could've died!"
"No! I wouldn't do that!" he shouted.
"Lily, it was probably an accident." Mary said. "Coincidental even. And if it wasn't, he wouldn't do it again."
Lily and Severus jumped. It seemed that amidst their argument they had forgotten that Mary was there.
"What would you know about it?" Severus sneered, recovering quickly. "You're just a Muggle. You don't know anything."
The air around them darkened and a sudden cold wind raced between the trees.
"You'd better watch your mouth." retorted Mary, eyes flashing dangerously.
"Both of you shut up!" Lily shouted. "Severus, just go away. I don't want to talk to you right now."
Severus was stunned. He looked as if Lily had hit him. Nevertheless he turned away and ran, his form quickly disappearing beneath the trees. Mary thought she'd heard a sob, but quickly decided it was her imagination.
"Lily are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm just... Wait. You know what a Muggle is." It was a statement, not a question.
"Of course I know. It's a non-magical human."
Lily looked excited and a large smile appeared on her face. "Are you a witch?"
"Maybe."
Lily squealed with excitement, passing over the notion that perhaps, as she only said maybe, Mary was indeed not a witch. "You can come to Hogwarts with us!" Mary looked at her questioningly. "Severus and me." Lily added. "It'll be fabulous! We can be in Slytherin and have a Common Room under a lake! And learn magic and we'll all be together!"
Mary looked bemused. "Why Slytherin?"
"Severus says it's the best house."
"Oh."
"Mary? Are you not excited?" Lily asked, crestfallen.
"Of course I am. But ... what if I don't go to Hogwarts?"
"What do you mean 'If You Don't Go'?"
Mary looked at Lily's sad expression and quickly withdrew what she had said. "Lily don't worry! Of course I'll go! It was just hypothetical."
Lily seemed to cheer up at this. "So what can you do?" she asked.
"Pardon?"
"With your magic! Look at this!" Lily focused on a stick that was lying on the floor by her feet. It slowly and shakily started to float upwards, and as it gained height, flew more steadily as Lily made it float around their heads. It spun and twirled in a strange kind of dance before eventually Lily let it fall back onto the floor. "So?"
"Watch and learn Lily. Watch and Learn!"
Mary stood back next to Lily and lifting her hands and closing her eyes, she lifted a pile of leaves off the forest floor.
"Oh that's nothing." scoffed Lily. Mary glanced at her and rolled her eyes, but said nothing. The piles of leaves swirled amongst themselves like a shoal of fish, twisting until they formed the shape of a large dragon.
The dragon of leaves roared and flew towards the two girls, gaining speed until at the last moment, only an inch from the two girls, the dragon hit an invisible barrier and smashed into pieces, showering the girls with fragments of leaf.
"... huh ..." was all Lily could manage.
9-year-old Sirius Black opened his eyes and tried not to panic. "Okay, I'll close my eyes, count to 5 and I'll be back in the garden." he thought. Yet when she opened his eyes a second time he was still in the forest.
"Dammit."
He decided to walk in a random direction, hoping to find some kind of signpost or perhaps another person. He would've liked to know how to get out of the forest as well. It wasn't that the forest was altogether unsettling, it was well lit and sort of friendly, but he was completely lost, and if there was one thing Sirius hated almost as much as his family, it was being lost.
He heard a twig snap behind him and turned around quickly.
"Hello?" he called out. His voice echoed slightly amongst the trees.
"Hello!" a voice called back from above him. He could see a small glowing figure resting on a branch above him. It jumped out of the tree, landing in a crouched position in front of him before straightening up. Sirius realised the figure was a girl.
"Great. My only chance of getting out of here is a girl. Simply great." he thought to himself.
She smiled as if she knew what he was thinking which unnerved Sirius slightly. He decided to look again.
She was about Sirius's age with golden hair and sky-blue, misty eyes. Her hair and dress swirled with the slight breeze, and when Sirius looked at her face, he realised that seeing her smile was calming.
He'd never admit it afterwards of course, not that he told anyone, but from the corner of his eyes he saw shimmering silver wings, not like a butterfly or a bird but rounded, almost like the petals of flowers.
"Are you lost?" she asked him. Her voice was melodic and reminded him of some kind of bird he thought he'd heard once when he was dreaming. Sirius didn't answer. He didn't know what to say.
"Don't be scared. You're in my forest."
Now Sirius did not like that. "I'm not scared! I just don't know where I am."
She laughed which disturbed Sirius further. He didn't like people laughing at him.
"You're in my forest." She repeated. "How did you get here?" It wasn't an accusation, he didn't think. It seemed like a simple question and apart from laughing at him, she seemed okay.
"I don't know. One minute I was at my Uncle's house and now I'm here. In your forest."
"Do you like it here?" she asked.
That question threw him completely off guard. It was at this point when Sirius thought that perhaps a brick or something had fallen on his head. He must be dreaming because it was simply too strange, even for the Wizarding World, to be real.
"Yeah, I suppose so."
She beamed at him. "Come with me, I want to show you something." The strange girl took Sirius's hand and the next thing he knew, he was on a large branch in a very tall tree, very high above the rest of the forest.
"... You wanted to show me a tree."
"No silly. Look!" She pointed behind him and Sirius turned very carefully on the spot. He looked out at the view and could see they were on the edge of the forest. "Do you know which house is yours?" she asked him. Sirius looked out over the tiny houses. He could see very small people in the distance, the size of ants and a railway that looked so small it could be a child's toy. He couldn't quite see the houses clearly and tried to move closer.
"No!" she shouted as he lost his balance off the tree branch. He felt himself falling ever so slightly before abruptly stopping. He looked beneath him curiously. The ground was still quite far away and for some reason he couldn't see the tree that was holding him up. Then he realised, "I'm floating!" he exclaimed. He moved slowly downwards towards the ground, and when he was about a metre away, he was dropped, falling unceremoniously on the ground. A face peered over at him.
"Are you okay?" the strange girl was standing over him. She turned him over and gave him a hand to get up again.
"Woops."
Her worried expression changed to laughing as she realised he was fine. "You are quite funny."
"Only quite?!" Sirius said indignantly.
"Yes. Did you see your house?"
"No I didn't. Thanks by the way."
"For what?" she asked him.
"Um... lemme think... saving me a few broken bones from falling out of a tree. Although I could've handled it myself of course." He added as an afterthought.
"Actually you would not have broken a few bones, you would've died." She said as a matter-of-fact. "How would you have handled it?"
"I'm a wizard. I can do anything."
"What's your name?" She asked him.
"Sirius. What's yours?"
She looked around to make sure that no one was there. "Myrissa." she whispered.
"Why are we whispering?" he whispered.
"Because we must." she whispered back. "Would you like to go home?" her voice raised to normal volume.
"How?" asked Sirius.
"I know a way." she replied. "Follow me."
The pair of them ran through the trees, smiling and laughing. The majestic trees starting to thin out and eventually they reached a clearing of lush green grass. Myrissa lifted her finger to her lips and gestured 'shush' as she led Sirius through the clearing to a pool of water. She knelt down to pick a small, golden flower from beside the pool and threw it into the centre. The flower melted into gold dust and sank into the pool.
"Look into the pool." she whispered.
Sirius looked at her, wondering how looking into a pool could possibly get him back to his Uncle's house. She poked him and he decided that he might as well try. Sirius stared into the pool of water and could slowly see an image of his Uncle's house forming on the rippling film surface of the pool.
Myrissa knelt beside him and looked at the image on the pool's surface. "Now I know where your house is." she smiled and took his hand.
The setting around them changed and Sirius could see before his eyes his Uncle's house. He stood in the garden where he had been before he disappeared. He looked beside him to see Myrissa looking up at the house.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she held her finger to her lips and waved, disappearing in an instant and leaving only one of the small golden flowers that she'd dropped into the pond.
Sirius picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, before deciding that he was probably completely insane.